Vase

Q: Enclosed is a picture of a vase. It is 14 inches tall, 6 inches in diameter and is marked "Victoria-Carlsbad." I know that it is at least 75 years old. Could you please tell me something about its age and value?A: Your vase was made in Carlsbad, Austria, by the Victoria porcelain factory between 1900 and 1915. It would probably sell for about $125 to $135.Q: This mark is on the back of a blue and white 9-inch plate. Can you identify the maker and estimate the value of my plate?A: "Scinde" is the name of a Flow Blue pattern; it was made by Minton & Co. in Stoke, England, during the mid-19th century.

Mary Alma O'Connor Lears, a former Walters Art Museum volunteer guide whose keen eyes alerted officials to a $1 million theft later linked to a gallery security guard, died of lung disease Jan. 24 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Towson and former Roland Park resident was 88. Born Mary Alma O'Connor in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Dr. John A. O'Connor, chief surgeon of the Baltimore Police Department and medical examiner, and Alma Obrecht, a homemaker. Raised in Govans and on Springlake Way in Homeland, she was a 1942 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School and was class president all four years.

Q: We have a round, squatty vase. It is brown and tan and decorated with leaves and pods. It is 6 inches tall and is signed "Galle." What are its age and value?A: Your vase was made in Nancy, France, at the Emile Galle glass-house around 1900. Most pieces of Galle were signed. After Galle's death in 1904 a star was added to the signature. The company continued until 1931. Your vase would probably be worth about $600 to $700 in good condition.Q: What is the value of my cranberry sugar shaker?

Tuesday we were in an office where a dusty cutting of a straggly plant sat in a vase on a windowsill. Fortunately, the shade was down, so sunlight did not show just how dusty the vase was, how little water was in the vase or how brown the edges of the leaves were.   I have been guilty of this pathetic-cutting-in-the-window syndrome.  My mother loved having a philodendron cutting in a pewter vase on the table by her chair. After she died, I brought the philodendron home. I kept water in the vase.

City police held a 56-year-old man at the Central police lockup today after he allegedly attempted to steal a 19th-century vase valued at $5,000 to $10,000 from the Walters Art Gallery. The vase was smashed during the arrest.The man, described by police as an outpatient at the Walter P. Carter Mental Health and Rehabilitation Center, was being held in lieu of $3,500 bail on a charge of theft.Police said he walked to the fourth floor of the museum at 600 N. Charles St. about 3 p.m. yesterday and stuffed the Sevres vase under his clothing.

A 19th-century vase that was purchased in 1867 by the founder of the Walters Art Gallery was destroyed Wednesday when a thief attempting to sneak it out of the gallery dropped it, officials said yesterday.The French Sevres porcelain, valued at $6,000 to $10,000, had been displayed as part of period decor in the 19th-century artwork section, on the fourth floor of the gallery in the 600 block of North Charles Street, a gallery spokesman said.Just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, a man hid the vase in his overcoat and attempted to walk out the Centre Street entrance.

In their decade-long investigation of the illicit antiquities trade, Italian authorities have amassed the most convincing evidence to date that the most prized ancient Greek vase in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was looted, records show. The Euphronios Krater, described as one of the finest antiquities ever obtained by the Met, has been the center of controversy since the museum acquired it 33 years ago. Italian authorities have long claimed the vase was looted from a tomb north of Rome, but the Met has refused to return it, saying the Italians lack "irrefutable proof."

Q: What's the origin and value of my 9 1/4 -inch diameter decorative plate with a deep blue and gold border? At its center is a three-quarter length multicolored image of a young peasant woman in old-fashioned dress, leaning against a horse which has baskets strapped to it. The scene's title, "The Milkmaiden," and "Greuze" appear on the plate's front. An indecipherable mark and the words "Dresden China" are on the back.A: Your circa-1920 to -1930 china plate mass-produced in Dresden, Germany, could retail for up to $300 if in good condition, according to dealer Marvin Baer, of the Ivory Tower Antiques, 38 Oak St., Ridgewood, N.J. 07450, (201)

Perhaps the most discussed piece in the Walters collection o Asian art is the splendid 18th century "Peach Bloom" vase. Stolen -- and recovered -- in 1988, it sits in its new case in the Chinese Library of Hackerman House, an example of the Ch'ing Dynasty porcelain that alerted Western connoisseurs to the color nuances and modulations that were possible in ceramics.The eight-inch high vase had already acquired a world-class reputation by the time William Walters paid $18,000 for it at a New York auction in 1886, setting a record price for Oriental porcelain.

Tuesday we were in an office where a dusty cutting of a straggly plant sat in a vase on a windowsill. Fortunately, the shade was down, so sunlight did not show just how dusty the vase was, how little water was in the vase or how brown the edges of the leaves were.   I have been guilty of this pathetic-cutting-in-the-window syndrome.  My mother loved having a philodendron cutting in a pewter vase on the table by her chair. After she died, I brought the philodendron home. I kept water in the vase.

Gunfire. Skullduggery. Bones in the attic. The story behind the story of the Preakness trophy reads like a great Southern novel. The Woodlawn Vase has its roots in pre-Civil War Kentucky. It was even buried there to keep it from falling into the wrong hands by a horse breeder who once got into a gunfight with the owner of a racetrack, shot the man and was banished from all tracks in America — you could look it up in The New York Times of 1879. The breeder, Capt. Thomas Moore, whose horses won the Tiffany-crafted, sterling silver trophy in 1861 and 1862, interred it for fear it would be melted down for shot, the popular story goes.

No one gets to take the Woodlawn Vase home anymore. Jeanne Murray Vanderbilt made sure of that in 1953 after her husband's horse, Native Dancer, won the Preakness by a neck. She was not going to be responsible for the three-foot-tall, 30 pound solid sterling silver trophy the winning owner was entitled to keep until the next year's race. So she gave it back. The next year — and for the 56 years since — owners have been getting a one-third replica of the original, which sits gleaming in a case at the Baltimore Museum of Art . The perpetual trophy, appraised at more than $1 million, will have its coming out party on Saturday, escorted to its place of honor in the winner's circle by white-gloved members of Maryland's National Guard.

With paintings by the masters, rare books and home goods crafted hundreds of years ago, Baltimore's Convention Center will become a museum of sorts next week — but one where people with able wallets can bring home the exhibits. The Baltimore Summer Antiques Show, one of the city's longest-running events, returns with all of the gilded finery people have come to expect from the show — one of the largest and most prestigious in the country. All told the show includes more than 200,000 pieces, everything from fine art, furniture, silver, jewelry, porcelain, glass and textiles — with price tags ranging from the modest — to a painting that sets the record for the most expensive item ever offered at the show: a Monet you could hang in your living room for $5.8 million.

It began with a wobbly flower vase. David A. Brignac received the small ceramic as a gift from a co-worker. But the vase, emblazoned with a detailed painting of a Victorian-era Baltimore post office, proved too tippy to use as a penholder. "I stuck it in my desk drawer for while," recalls Brignac, 51, a 30-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service. "I didn't realize it was from the late 1880s." Eventually, though, his curiosity led him to discover its age. The rest, as they say, is history.

This time, the luster of the Preakness Stakes was darkened by what happened shortly after the start, not what happened when the field turned into the stretch run. When Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro broke down before reaching the finish line the first time, the tenor of the race was completely altered, with no overwhelming favorite to look for when the running turned really serious. "With Barbaro in there, I don't know what margin he would have won by if he didn't have the injury," said Bernardini's trainer, Tom Albertrani.

Megan Evans has loved clay for a long time. She admits it runs her life. There's always a piece to "throw," a bowl to carve or a vase to fire in the kiln. The clay never stops, never waits and always does what it wants. And, no matter how many orders she might be working on for one gallery or another, she often opens the kiln in her basement studio at home to a complete surprise. Much like Forrest Gump's adage about life and a box of chocolates, with clay, you never know what you're gonna get. Despite the hard work, Evans is in heaven lately.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The woman who claims to have been raped at the Kennedy family estate left the compound after the alleged assault but apparently returned shortly afterward and talked with William Kennedy Smith, the man she named as her attacker, sources close to the case said.The disclosure comes as police say they are nearing the end of their investigation and follows the revelation that the 29-year-old woman took an antique vase and possibly Kennedy family photographs from the mansion because she wanted to prove that she had been there.

Art commentary Works by Jeffrey Kent and a piece by Mari Gardner up now at the Sub-Basement Artist Studios provide pointed social commentary. Kent's large-scale paintings are done in bright colors and include elements of hip-hop culture, fashion and politics. His work strives to puncture stereotypes in these realms. Gardner's single piece is a blanket woven from 5,801 bullet casings. This is the number of violent crimes the FBI said were committed in Baltimore in 2003. Sub-Basement Artist Studios is at 118 N. Howard St. Call 410-659-6950.

With the strains of the anthems of the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force filling the room, hundreds of students and faculty members at Winters Mill High rose to their feet and offered a steady stream of grateful applause to the nearly 300 war veterans who had gathered for a day of remembrance. Among them stood men and women who had served in conflicts stretching back to World War II. There was 92-year-old Henry Singer, who served in the Navy from 1934 to 1945. Standing beside him was his friend, fellow Navy man Charles Swiderman, 85, who clutched a framed painting of the USS Santee, the carrier on which he served from 1942 to 1945.

In their decade-long investigation of the illicit antiquities trade, Italian authorities have amassed the most convincing evidence to date that the most prized ancient Greek vase in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was looted, records show. The Euphronios Krater, described as one of the finest antiquities ever obtained by the Met, has been the center of controversy since the museum acquired it 33 years ago. Italian authorities have long claimed the vase was looted from a tomb north of Rome, but the Met has refused to return it, saying the Italians lack "irrefutable proof."